Ancestral Astrology & the Feminine Grail.

For two or three months I’ve had something of a sabbatical-or at least a semi- sabbatical-from my usual working life. Partly it has to do with being somewhat itinerant, travelling around Scotland visiting sacred sites and getting involved in interesting art projects. In the midst of this I am grieving the loss of my mother. On a deep level I am processing not only her death, but our relationship, and the wider constellations of my lineage.

It’s too early to write about, or even put into words the great unravelling that is taking place within me though I am aware of a great release… something uncoiling alongside the sorrow. In the untangling, memories surface, now seen within a larger context. A tremendous amount of energy was tied up in my relationship with my mother and the inherent mother-line trauma.

I have been floating in the liminal but slowly I am realigning my focus and tentatively meeting the world with a renewed (but still tender) clarity.

Interestingly, during this time, although I’ve not been offering a lot of astrology sessions, the experiences of the clients I have seen are curiously aligned with my own. Slowly, a new method of working with the chart is taking shape; for want of a better term I loosely call it “Ancestral Astrology”. Personally, I am privileged to have both my mother’s and my grandmother’s charts (though this is not necessary to explore your own experiences with me).

The last spate of women I worked with have similarities in common: each one feels that on some level she is a pattern breaker in her family and that consciously or otherwise she has elected to face the family shadow and heal the line through first healing herself. Invariably this journey has been extremely challenging and intense however by going back through the line- and mainly it is the mother-line- things that have been buried deep in the family psyche are brought to light.

I find that these women all have a tremendous power, a bright light, and a gift to offer the world.

The quest to free oneself from the trauma and unconsciousness of the past is the Heroine’s Journey, or the Feminine Grail path. In the Grail quest, the hero must extricate himself from the mother, slay the dragon of unconsciousness, and free himself from the that which keeps him in a regressed or juvenile state. There is a lot of literature written about this psychological process, particularly through a Jungian lens and is seen in the work of Jungians like Eric Neumann, Edward Edinger, as well as Jung himself. Less has been written about the feminine need to also break free from regressive matrilineal conditioning- Marion Woodman and Sylvia Brinton Perera are two women who have written beautifully and powerfully about feminine consciousness.

Given that the women (clients) I mention above feel that most of their ancestral trauma has come down through the mother-line, and given that there appears to be less of an obvious need for women to cut from that which is perceived as the same (the mother) the question of how women free themselves from the wounds of feminine consciousness while retrieving or holding sacred the inherent gifts is a complex one.

Something else I have noted is that many of the women I work with are often childless and are the last of their matrilineal line. It’s almost as if the “buck stops” with them. Like the anaretic, or critical degree in astrology- the last point before the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one, or the balsamic moon, everything mulches down, composts and transforms. In the darkness, beneath the earth, in the crucible of the unconscious a sifting occurs- what is precious and required for a new beginning is harnessed and renewed; that which has served its purpose dies, is returned to the earth, and provides energy for rebirth.

As anyone who has made the journey to the underworld will testify, a confrontation with the unconscious is perilous.

The myths of Inanna and Persephone- the myths of death and resurrection tell of the journey. The Phoenix and the serpent are symbols of transmutation while the many stories of therianthropy (humans shapeshifting into animals) in folklore and fairytale refer to the magical or divine aspects of the process.

The Grail is a sojourn in the unconscious toward liberation from the psychic forces that bind us in a half-life… it can last a very long time.

When I work with women, I am struck by what they have to offer, the gifts they inherently possess, and the wisdom they have gained from their time in the underworld. I know the mammoth effort it has taken to free themselves from the binds of their past, and I watch with wonder as I witness them transmute their story from victim to victor.

Feel free to contact me if you resonate with this post and would like to book a session to explore your own chart and reframe your journey.